My Paradise

Hello loves,

Here I am again and today I want to tell you about a few really beautiful and exciting days. In the last post, I already told you that I drove from Auckland to Rotorua. There was a specific reason for this, because I applied to work at a horse farm here. Even though it didn't look good for me in the beginning because I am not qualified for the job and it's not a paid position, but rather I work for room and board. However, the woman I wrote to, Sarah, was so impressed with my email and resume that she still invited me. And what can I say, a few days ago I got the final OK that I can stay here until the beginning of December.

Here is Lakes Ranch, a bit outside of Rotorua, a Christian camp with horses, sheep, cows, and other animals. Groups and classes can come here for field trips and sometimes there are also self-organized camps. Everyone who works here does it voluntarily and is paid with room and board. The 'permanent employees' naturally get more than us volunteers from Europe. Sarah really fought for me to be able to stay here and she and her family are super nice to me. I get to live in the house of her in-laws and I am welcome at their house at any time. The family consists of Sarah and Ross, who know a lot about horses, and their three children who have already taken me into their hearts. So far, I have also had dinner with them almost every evening.

Other than that, I spend my time working for the horse team, which Sarah leads, and the hosting team, which Rob leads. One of my 'workdays' consisted of grooming and riding horses. How awesome is that? But of course, we also have to do other things, like feeding the horses, for which we have to climb up the hilly paddocks, feeding lambs, and taking care of the classes with the hosting team, helping with the activities, and on the departure day, making sure everything is cleaned again.

All in all, I really like it here. On my first day, Sarah also showed me the surroundings and took me to some beautiful lakes. Today, we saw a newborn calf and we are just waiting for our pregnant mares to give birth to their foals. The only thing that is not so nice at the moment is the weather, as it rains almost every day.

I hope I could give you a little insight into my current home and I hope I can manage to write more regularly again.

See you soon,

Your Jessi